The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

by Brian P. Moran

“If we did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” —Thomas Edison

Knowledge is only powerful if you use it, if you act on it.

execute. Execution is the single greatest market differentiator.

Great companies and successful individuals execute better than their competition. The barrier standing between you and the life you are capable of living is a lack of consistent execution. Effective execution will set you free. It is the path to accomplish the things you desire.

Ann focused on improving her execution by doing what she had already been doing, just doing it more steadily. By consistently executing the critical few tasks and strategies that most supported her success, she was able to create a huge increase—and all of this without working longer hours.

Focus on the things you currently do, just do them better and in a more focused way

“It’s not what you know; it’s not even who you know; it’s what you implement that counts.”

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” —Henry Ford

At the heart of annualized thinking is an unspoken belief that there is plenty of time in the year to make things happen. In January, December looks a long way off.

We mistakenly believe that there is a lot of time left in the year, and we act accordingly. We lack a sense of urgency, not realizing that every week is important, every day is important, every moment is important. Ultimately, effective execution happens daily and weekly!

Stop thinking in terms of a year; instead focus on shorter time frames.

The annual execution cycle blinds people to the reality that life is lived in the moment and that ultimately success is created in the moment. It lulls people into believing that they can put things off—critical activity—and still accomplish what they desire, still achieve their goals.

With little time to waste and with clear objectives to meet, workers focus on the critical projects and opportunities. Tasks that are not directly related to driving results are pushed aside for what really matters in the short-term.

essentially, you're creating more deadlines for yourself

deadline that creates the urgency.

Periodization began as an athletic training technique designed to dramatically improve performance. Its principles are focus, concentration, and overload on a specific skill or discipline.

When you focus on changing your actions, you experience incremental improvements; however, when your thinking shifts—everything changes. Your actions naturally realign with your new thought patterns. This is how breakthroughs are created. Breakthrough results don’t start with your actions, they are first created in your thinking. Herein lies the power of the 12 Week Year; it shifts your mind-set, thereby creating opportunities for breakthrough.

Effective execution does not happen monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually; it happens daily, ultimately moment by moment.

Without a compelling reason to choose otherwise, most people will take comfortable actions over uncomfortable ones. The issue is that the important actions are often the uncomfortable ones. In our experience, the number-one thing that you will have to sacrifice to be great, to achieve what you are capable of, and to execute your plans, is your comfort.

Think about what you truly want to achieve. What legacy do you want to create? What do you want for yourself and for your family? What do you want spiritually? What level of security do you seek? What level of income and fulfillment do you want from your career? What interests do you wish you could pursue? What do you really want to do with the time you have been allotted?

Notion Template

Vision is the starting point of all high performance. You create things twice; first mentally, then physically.

neuroplasticity. Here’s why it’s such a big deal: Your brain has the ability to change and develop physiologically, and it does so based on how you use it.

Working from a plan has three distinct benefits: 1. It reduces mistakes. 2. It saves time. 3. It provides focus.

The whole point of planning should be to help you identify and implement the critical few actions that you need to take to reach your goal.

The 12 week plan is structured so that if the tactics are completed on a timely basis the goals are achieved.

Twelve weeks is long enough to get things done, and yet is short enough to create and maintain a sense of urgency.

To be truly effective, your daily activity must align with your long-term vision, strategies, and tactics.

you have greater control over your actions than you do your results. Your results are created by your actions. That’s why it is so important to construct plans that are not only numbers-based, but also identify specific, critical activity.

Your current actions are creating your future. If you want to know what your future holds, look to your actions; they are the best predictor of your future.

Weekly plans allow you to structure your activities so that you are focused on both the long-term and short-term tasks that are truly important.

Add short term and long term goals for each project each week (Notion)

The weekly plan is not a glorified to-do list; rather it reflects the critical strategic activity from your 12 week plan that needs to take place this week in order for you to achieve your goals.

The 12 week plan contains all of the tactics you need to execute in order to achieve your 12 week goals.

spend the first 15 or 20 minutes at the beginning of each week to review your progress from the past week and plan the upcoming one. In addition, the first five minutes of each day should be spent reviewing your weekly plan to plan that day’s activities.

Your weekly plan encompasses your strategies and priorities, your long-term and short-term tasks, and your commitments in the context of time. It helps you focus on the elements of your plan that must happen each week to keep you on track with your 12 Week Year goals. Your goals in turn keep you on track with your vision. Everything is powerfully aligned.

Scorekeeping is at the heart of competition. We keep track of scores, measurements, and stats to determine success and identify areas for improvement.

A common misconception is that scoring damages self-esteem, but research indicates the opposite: Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents progress and achievement.

Effective measurement captures both lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision making. Lag indicators—things like income, sales, commission dollars, pounds lost, body fat percentage, overall cholesterol levels—represent the end results that you are striving to achieve. Lead indicators are the activities that produce the end results—for instance the number of sales calls, or referrals are lead indicators in the sales process.

What are lead and lag measures for each project? (Notion)

you don’t know if the plan doesn’t work if you’re not working the plan.

every time you execute, you produce something—it may not be what you expected, but something will happen. This something is market feedback, and it’s impossible to effectively adjust your plan without it. Without knowing what tactics you executed, any changes you make will be based purely on guesswork.

work from a weekly plan (based upon your 12 Week Plan) and evaluate the percentage of tactics completed.

if you successfully complete 85 percent of the activities in your weekly plan, then you will most likely achieve your objectives.

Productive tension is the uncomfortable feeling you get when you’re not doing the things you know you need to do.

use productive tension as a catalyst for change.

spend your time with intention,

Benjamin Franklin said, “If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.”

the key to successful time use—intentional time use—is not trying to eliminate these unplanned interruptions, but instead to block out regular time each week dedicated to your strategically important tasks. We call this Performance Time and find that it is the best approach to effectively allocating time that we have ever encountered. It utilizes a simple time-blocking system to regain control of your day and maximize your effectiveness.

A strategic block is a three-hour block of uninterrupted time that is scheduled into each week. During this block you accept no phone calls, no faxes, no emails, no visitors, no anything.

Buffer blocks are designed to deal with all of the unplanned and low-value activities—like most email and voicemail—that arise throughout a typical day.

An effective breakout block is at least three-hours long and spent on things other than work. It is time scheduled away from your business during normal business hours that you will use to refresh and reinvigorate your mind, so that when you return to work, you can engage with more focus and energy.

The concept of an ideal week is to plan on paper all the critical tasks that occur in a typical week and organize them so you can be most productive.

the only accountability that truly exists is self-accountability. The only person who can hold you accountable for anything is you, and to be successful you must develop the mental honesty and courage to own your thinking, actions, and results.

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” —Peter Drucker